Digital storytelling (StoryCenter)

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Joe Lambert, Brooke Hessler · Berkeley/Oakland, California

What it is

Digital storytelling in the StoryCenter tradition is a participatory media method, not a psychotherapy: people in a small facilitated group find a personal story, share it in a Story Circle, write a short first-person script (about 300 words in StoryCenter's online workshop), record it in their own…

Format

• Standard format (StoryCenter in-person workshop). Three consecutive days, 9am–5pm, capacity 10 participants, no prerequisites; participants bring a laptop and a smartphone (StoryCenter supplies a computer if needed). Components, as listed by StoryCenter: introduction to the Seven Steps; facilitated…
• Phase sequence. A research team using the StoryCenter method set the stages out as: orientation → prompts → script writing → story circle → voiceover → rough edit → final edit → workshop airing → public screening (where agreed). StoryCenter's own ordering in the book's table of contents is Seven…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Sources include official pages: the 5th edition's details and chapter list (Routledge publisher page: 2018, 234 pp.; ch. 5 "Seven Steps of Digital Storytelling", ch. 6 "The Story Circle", ch. 9 "The Walking Story Circle", ch. 12 "Distribution, Ethics, and the Politics of Engagement", addendum "Silence Speaks: Guidelines for Ethical Practice"); the publisher's summary of the Seven Steps as running from conceiving a…
• Professional frame. There is no regulated profession or protected credential for digital storytelling. StoryCenter's own online Digital Storytelling Certificate Program (ten weekly two-hour sessions, open only to people who have already done a workshop, taught by Joe Lambert, Brooke Hessler and/or Andrea Spagat) gives a certificate of participation, not CEUs or a formal credential. StoryCenter runs its own…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• facilitator taste overriding the storyteller's voice.
• storytellers who feel they cannot ask; make the offer again at follow-up.
• the drop after a high-intensity three days; plan a follow-up contact within days.
• people who disclose heavily early; gently hold it for the circle and check support.
• storytellers attending screenings without support; audiences asking intrusive questions.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.